Blizzard has reportedly recruited former Far Cry director, Dan Hay to develop a new StarCraft shooter game. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier revealed the information on a podcast aired on September 24th. The project is Blizzard’s third attempt at making a StarCraft game.
Jason Schreier revealed that Dan Hay was in charge of a new StarCraft project when speaking on the IGN podcast unlocked episode aired on September 26th. Schreier provided information on Blizzard and the game developer’s workplace culture and their projects when discussing his book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, due to be published in October.
Blizzard hires Dan Hay to develop new StarCraft project
According to Blomberg video game reporter Jason Schreier, Blizzard recruited Dan Hay to lead the development of its new StarCraft shooter game. The reporter’s book stated that Hay would work with a few developers following Blizzard’s decision to lay off most of its staff. Schreier added that the information was an important “nugget” as it showed that Blizzard would not quit developing StarCraft shooter games. The reporter also mentioned that he expected the information to cause ripples and be the subject of many news headlines.
Dan Hay joined Activision in 2022 and took up a role as the game developer’s GM/VP after serving a long stint at Ubisoft. Hay is set to spearhead Blizzard’s third attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter game after two failed attempts in 2006 and 2019. Blizzard famously canceled StarCraft Ghost due to publicized issues and delays four years after it was first unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in 2002. The game developer also shut down the unannounced codename Ares project in 2019 after two years of development.
The reveal provided insight into what Dan Hay has been working on since the cancellation of Blizzard’s project Odessey in January this year. Project Oddessey was a survival game that had been in development for six years.
Led by Hay and a team of 100 developers, project Odessey struggled to overcome tech issues resulting from the project’s transition to using Synapse, a game engine used by Activision for its mobile games. The project’s failure to meet expectations resulted in many of its dedicated staff being laid off after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard.
Fans react to Blizzard making a new StarCraft shooter
After the podcast aired, StarCraft fans were quick to take to social media to share their excitement. Most fans gave positive feedback, saying they could not wait to play the game. Many players stated that the game would give the StarCraft franchise a new breath of life.
One such comment by a user Dr. Battalisk said, “I’ve been wanting this for a while, shooting a hoard of Zurg will be so much fun much like the joy we have been having shooting down Tyranids in Space Marine 2.”
Some fans also showed their skepticism after the new game’s development was revealed. Many fans mentioned that the cancellation of StarCraft Ghost left them with low expectations. Other fans also questioned Microsoft’s team behind the new project’s development and questioned whether the new team could live up to the standard set by developers like Machine Games.